Break a hole in the tent and wasps will finish them off. As long as the
chinoides rhododendrons are healthy, the loss of leaves will cone back.
Many times a specific caterpillar will only eat fron a specific host.
Observe what the caterpillar looks like eating the leaves and then check
and see if you find it on this website -
http://www.whatsthiscaterpillar.co.uk/. If you have others, you can use
the site to id them, too.

Jenny wrote:
=

I'm told that everyone is having a problem with caterpillars this year =
in my
area. There are tent caterpillars and a bunch of others. They're all =
over
my neighbor's baby fruit trees and seem to be coming over to my lot for=

dessert. They've munched most of the new growth off of my expensive new=

chinoides rhododendrons.
=

What's the best approach to dealing with them? I've seen people talking=

about a bacillus, but didn't see it at the garden center.

-- =

Celestial Habitats by J. Kolenovsky
2003 Honorable Mention Award, Keep Houston Beautiful
=F4=BF=F4 - http://www.celestialhabitats.com - business. Quoted by the Ho=
uston
Chronicle Lazy Gardener as 1 of 7 best gardening websites in Houston.
=F4=BF=F4 - http://www.hal-pc.org/~garden/personal.html - personal